Aseptic filling bottle

ABSTRACT

A bottom portion ( 6 ) of an aseptic filling bottle ( 1 ) includes a ground contact portion ( 10 ) that comes into contact with a mounting surface, a center portion ( 12 ) that progressively intrudes interior of the bottle as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion ( 10 ), and a dome portion ( 13 ) that is provided at a center of the center portion ( 12 ) to intrude the interior of the bottle further than the center portion ( 12 ). A dome portion side circumferential edge ( 12   a ) of the center portion ( 12 ) has an intrusion height (D 1 ) into the bottle interior, which height is higher than a half (D 2 ) the height from the ground contact portion ( 10 ) to a boundary between the body portion and the bottom portion ( 6 ).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an aseptic filling bottle having a mouth portion, a shoulder portion, a body portion and a bottom portion.

RELATED ART

As a method of filling liquid in a plastic bottle, there is known an aseptic (sterilized) filling method of filing liquid in a bottle under a sterilized state. With this aseptic filling method, it is possible to prevent the plastic bottle from being exposed to a high temperature. For this reason, an aseptic filling bottle filled by the aseptic filling method (to be referred to as an “aseptic filling bottle” hereinafter) may have only low heat resistance, thus allowing the bottle to be formed thin and light.

However, when a bottle is formed thin and light, there arises a problem of corresponding reduction in its strength. Thus, when carbonated drink is filled inside the bottle for instance, due to generation of carbonate bubbles therein, there occurs rise of the inside pressure of the bottle, which then can lead to a buckling phenomenon of the bottom portion. With occurrence of suck buckling, the bottle can no longer stand on its own, thus making commercial distribution thereof infeasible. And, to cope with this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-140156 (Patent Document 1) proposes a bottle capable of suppressing buckling of its bottom portion by providing a dome-shaped recess at the center of a center portion of the bottom portion, with the recess intruding the bottle interior.

PRIOR-ART DOCUMENT Patent Document

-   Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No.     2012-140156

SUMMARY Problem to be Solved by Invention

A plastic bottle filled with contents is to be stored not only at a room temperature or a lowered temperature, but may also be stored under freezing in order to store its contents under its frozen state. However, in the case of such freeze storage, expansion of the contents occurs due to freezing, which may cause buckling of the bottom portion. And, this problem appears conspicuously in an aseptic filing bottle which fails to take expansion/contraction of inside air into its designing consideration. In the worst case, not only occurrence of the buckling, but also rupture of the bottle is conceivable.

In general, a force applied to the bottom portion due to expansion of contents is greater than a force applied to the bottom portion due to rise of inside pressure caused by carbonate bubbling. In this regard, the bottle of Patent Document 1 had a strength to such a degree to be able to suppress the buckling at the time of filling of carbonated drink, but not to such a degree as to suppress the buckling due to expansion of contents stored under frozen state. Further, when the arrangement such as that of Patent Document 1 is implemented, there would arise also difficulty in consideration of aesthetic aspect and desirable weight reduction of the bottle. Thus, due to consideration to the aspect of strength, an aseptic filling bottle has not been positively used for freeze storage.

In view of the above, there is a need for realizing an aseptic filling bottle that can suppress the buckling of its bottom portion even in the case of freeze storage.

Solution

According to the present invention, there is provided an aseptic filling bottle having a mouth portion, a shoulder portion, a body portion and a bottom portion;

wherein the bottom portion includes a ground contact portion that comes into contact with a mounting surface, a center portion that progressively intrudes interior of the bottle as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion, and a dome portion that is provided at a center of the center portion to intrude the interior of the bottle further than the center portion; and

wherein a circumferential edge of the dome portion side of the center portion has an intrusion height into the bottle interior, which height is higher than a half the height from the ground contact portion to a boundary between the body portion and the bottom portion.

The present inventors found that rather than forming only the center of the center portion in the dome-shape intruding the bottle interior, an arrangement of keeping such dome-shape portion and also configuring the whole center portion from the circumferential edge to the ground contact portion to progressively intrude the bottle interior as it extends radially inwards, can achieve further increase of the strength of the bottle bottom portion. The present inventors further found that the strength increasing effect can be even enhanced by an arrangement of setting the maximal intrusion height of the center portion, i.e. the intrusion height of the circumferential edge of the dome portion side, into the bottle interior higher than a half the height of the bottom portion.

And, according to the above inventive configuration, thanks to the arrangements discovered by the present inventors, namely, the arrangement of forming the center portion into the shape of progressively intruding the bottle interior as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion and the further arrangement of setting the intrusion height of the dome portion side circumferential edge into the bottle interior higher than a half the height of the bottom portion (namely, the height up to the boundary between the body portion and the bottom portion), the strength of the bottom portion can be increased effectively. Thus, it becomes possible to effectively suppress occurrence of the buckling phenomenon at the bottom portion under the freeze storage state.

Next, preferred embodiments of the aseptic filling bottle according to the present invention will be explained. It is understood, however, that the scope of the present invention is not to be limited to the preferred embodiments described below.

According to one preferred embodiment, the center portion is formed arcuate.

With the above arrangement, as the center portion that intrudes the bottle interior is formed arcuate, in comparison with an arrangement of forming the center portion linear from the ground contact portion to the dome portion side circumferential edge, the strength of the bottom portion can be further increased since the above arrangement can render the pressure to be applied to the center portion uniform. Thus, the buckling phenomenon of the bottom portion under freeze storage can be suppressed in an even more effective manner.

According to a further preferred embodiment, a concave groove portion is formed radially from the center portion.

With the above arrangement, thanks to the concave groove portion, the strength of the bottom portion can be further enhanced.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the concave groove portion extends from the dome portion to a circumferential edge portion located radially outwards of the ground contact portion.

With the above arrangement, since the concave groove portion for bottom portion reinforcement is formed long from the dome portion to the circumferential edge portion, the strength of the bottom portion can be further increased.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the concave groove portion has a depth with respect to the ground contact portion which ranges from 2.5 mm to 5.0 mm.

With the above arrangement of setting the depth of the concave groove portion to the above-defined depth range, the strength of the bottom portion can be further increased.

According to a further preferred embodiment, at the body portion, at least one recess-like rib which extends circumferentially around its circumference is formed.

With the above arrangement, volumetric expansion of the contents under freeze storage can be absorbed to a certain extent by the recess-like rib provided in the body portion. Thus, the force to be applied due to volumetric expansion can be reduced, so that the buckling phenomenon of the bottom portion under freeze storage can be suppressed even more effectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of an aseptic filling bottle,

FIG. 2 is a bottom view showing a bottom portion of the aseptic filling bottle,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the bottom portion of the aseptic filling bottle,

FIG. 4 is a section taken along IV-IV in FIG. 2, and

FIG. 5 is a section taken along V-V in FIG. 2.

EMBODIMENT

Next, an embodiment of an aseptic filling bottle relating to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. An aseptic filling bottle 1 relating to this embodiment includes a mouth portion 2, a shoulder portion 4, a body portion 5 and a bottom portion 6. The bottom portion 6 includes a ground contact portion 10 that comes into contact with a mounting surface, a center portion 12 that progressively intrudes interior of the bottle as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion 10 toward the center of the bottom portion 6, and a dome portion 13 that is provided at the center of the center portion 12 to intrude the interior of the bottle further than this center portion 12. The center portion 12 is configured such that a circumferential edge 12 a of the dome portion side of this center portion 12 has an intrusion height D1 into the bottle interior, which height is higher than a half D2 the height from the ground contact portion 10 to the boundary between the body portion 5 and the bottom portion 6. With these arrangements, buckling phenomenon of the bottom portion under freeze storage state can be effectively suppressed. Next, the aseptic filling bottle 1 according to the instant embodiment will be described in greater details.

The aseptic filling bottle (to be referred to simply as “bottle” hereinafter) 1 relating to this embodiment includes, as shown in FIG. 1, the mouth portion 2 acting as a spout for dispensing liquid and a bottle main portion 3 to be filled with the liquid. The bottle main portion 3 includes the shoulder portion 4, the body portion 5 and the bottom portion 6. The shoulder portion 4 designates a portion which is continuous with the mouth portion 2 and which has a progressively increasing diameter as it extends toward the bottom face. In particular, this shoulder portion 4 is comprised of a combination of polygonal “panels” of various shapes. The body portion 4 designates a tubular portion continuous with the shoulder portion 3. The bottom portion 5 designates a part of the bottle main portion 3 where the circumferential face of this body main portion 3 is progressively decreased in its diameter toward the bottom face. Namely, in the instant embodiment, the position of the boundary between the body portion 5 and the bottom portion 6 corresponds to the height position where the diameter of the bottle main portion 3 begins to diminish toward the bottom face.

Here, it is noted that the bottle 1 relating to the present embodiment is a bottle for aseptic (sterilized) filling method of filling liquid in the bottle under a sterilized state. According to the aseptic filling method, it is possible to prevent a plastic bottle from being exposed to a high temperature, so that the bottle 1 may have a low heat resistance, thus allowing it to be configured as a thin and light bottle. The bottle 1 can be formed by integral molding of such main material as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethyleneterephthalate, etc. using specifically a stretch molding technique such as the biaxial stretch blow molding.

The bottle 1 relating to the instant embodiment, as will be described later, is configured to be able to withstand filed contents volumic expansion when liquid filled therein is stored under frozen state. Preferred examples of the contents to be filled in the bottle 1 are non-carbonated drink, which can be stored under frozen state, such as mineral water, tea, soft drink, or fruit juices. In addition, carbonated drink or a food product such as sauce can be employed suitably.

The body portion 5 consists essentially of a straight body portion 5 a as a “body upper portion”, a constricted portion 5 b and a cushioning portion 5 c as a “body lower portion”. In the straight body portion 5, there are formed a plurality of recess-like ribs 7 which extend around the circumferential face of the straight body portion 5. Each recess-like rib 7 has a shape which is concave on the inner side in the radial direction (the direction extending toward a center axis X of the bottle 1 and along the horizontal direction). The width and depth of the respective recess-like rib 7 are set approximately constant around the entire circumference thereof. These recess-like ribs 7 function as reinforcing ribs for increasing the strength of the lateral face of the bottle 1 and function also as portions for absorbing volumetric expansion of the contents at the time of freeze storage through stretching of the bottle 1 in the vertical upward direction.

The constricted portion 5 b is a portion configured to facilitate consumer's gripping of the bottle 1. The constricted portion 5 b has a shape comprised of combination of polygons having various shapes as seen in its front view. The diameter of the constricted portion 5 b progressively diminishes toward the vertical center position thereof.

The cushioning portion 5 c includes a V-shaped recess portion 8 and two small recess portions 9 a, 9 b acting respectively as the recess-like ribs 7 and has a three-stage spring-like arrangement. With this, the cushioning portion 5 c can be elastically deformed in the vertical direction. Therefore, even when a load is applied to the bottle 1 in the vertical direction, this load can be absorbed by elastic deformation of the cushioning portion 5 c, whereby buckling of the bottle 1 can be prevented. Further, the V-shaped recess portion 8 and the small recess portions 9 a, 9 b function also as portions for absorbing, through their deformation, volumetric expansion of the contents liquid at the time of freeze storage. Further, the lower small recess portion 9 b serves also as the boundary between the body portion 5 and the bottom portion 6.

The body portion 5 is configured as described above and in this body portion 5, the recess-like ribs 7 are formed in the upper portion (straight body portion 5 a) and the lower portion (the constricted portion 5 b and the cushioning portion 5 c) of the body portion, respectively. The recess-like ribs 7 can be formed at least one in any chosen position in the body portion 5. Preferably, two or more such recess-like ribs 7 will be formed in the body portion 5. Still preferably, at least one will be formed in the body lower portion and a plurality thereof will be formed in the body upper portion. In the instant embodiment, total of six recess-like ribs 7 are formed in the straight body portion 5 a as the body upper portion. Incidentally, if at least one thereof is formed in the body lower portion and the body upper portion, respectively, it is possible to facilitate the volumetric expansion of the filled liquid at the time of freeze storage in the vertical upper direction of the bottle 1, so that the bottle 1 can stand straight on its own without any tilting and also deformation or rupture of the bottle will not occur, either. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the recess-like rib 7 should have a shape which is concave on the inner side in the radial direction and which extends along the entire circumference. The straight body portion 5 a (the body upper portion) is a portion where an unillustrated label is to be wound. Thus, as the recess-like ribs 7 will be covered by the label, the positive forming of the recess-like ribs 7 in the straight body portion 5 a will not impair the aesthetic appearance.

As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the bottom portion 6 includes the annular ground contact portion 10 which is to be placed in contact with a mounting surface such as that of a desk. The bottom portion 6 further includes a circumferential edge portion 11 which is the portion on the radial outer side of the ground contact portion 10, the center portion 12 which is the portion on the radial inner side relative to the ground contact portion 10, and the dome portion 13 that intrudes the bottom interior further than the center portion 12. The center portion 12 has a shape that progressively intrudes the interior of the bottle 1 (upwards in FIG. 1) as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion 10, so that the center portion 12 is formed arcuate from the ground contact portion 10 to the dome portion 13. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, circumferential edge 12 a of the dome portion side of the center portion 12 has an intrusion height D1 into the bottle interior, which height is higher than a half D2 the height from the ground contact portion 10 to a boundary 6 a between the body portion 5 and the bottom portion 6. Moreover, the dome portion 13 has a trapezoidal shape as seen in its vertical section.

In the bottom portion 6, there are formed, radially equidistantly from the dome portion 13, a plurality (eight in this embodiment) of concave groove portions 14 that extend from the dome portion 13 to the circumferential edge portion 11. These concave groove portions 14 provide reinforcement of the strength of the bottom portion 6. By the provision of these concave groove portions 14, the ground contact portion 10, the circumferential edge portion 11 and the center portion 12 are sectioned from each other in the circumferential direction (the direction around the center axis X of the bottle 1). As shown in FIG. 5, a height position of a circumferential edge portion 11 side end portion 14 a of the respective concave groove portion 14 is set approximately same as a height position of a top portion 13 b of the dome portion 13. Further, the respective concave groove portion 14 has a depth at its ground contact portion 10, which depth ranges from 2.5 mm to 5.0 mm. If the depth were smaller than 2.5 mm, this would make it difficult to obtain sufficient strength reinforcement. Whereas, if the depth were greater than 5.0 mm, such excessive depth would impair the aesthetic appearance of the bottom 1 and/or could cause need for design change in the other portions.

In this way, with this bottle 1, in addition to the arrangement of forming the dome portion 13 at the center of the bottom portion 6, the arrangement of forming the entire center portion 12 from the dome portion 13 to the ground contact portion 10 being caused to intrude the bottle interior as its extends radially inwards, the further arrangement of setting the intrusion height of the dome portion circumferential edge 13 a into the bottle interior greater than a half of the height of the bottom portion 6, as well as the still further arrangement of forming arcuate from the ground contact portion 10 to the dome portion side circumferential edge 3, the strength of the bottom portion 6 is effectively increased. Furthermore, thanks to the concave groove portions 14 caused to extend from the dome portion 13 to the circumferential edge 11, the strength of the bottom portion 6 is further increased. With these, it has become possible to ensure sufficient strength for the bottom portion 6 to be able to suppress the buckling phenomenon thereof due to volumetric expansion of the contents under freeze storage.

Next, the weight and the capacity of the bottle 1 will be explained. Firstly, the bottom portion 6 is configured to have 0.12 or more weight ratio of this bottom portion 6 relative to the total weight of the bottle 1. Namely, with increase of the weight ratio of the bottom portion 6, the wall thickness of this bottom portion 6 is positively increased, so that for the bottle as a whole, the strength of the bottom portion 6 can be increased positively or with emphasis. As a result, it becomes possible to increase the strength of the bottom portion 6 up to a degree capable of suppressing buckling of this bottom portion 6 at the time of freeze storage. Table 1 below shows relationship between the weight ratio of the bottom portion 6 relative to the total bottle weight (bottom portion/total in FIG. 1) and presence/absence of rupture/deformation at the time of freeze storage (presence is denoted with X, absence is denoted with ◯).

TABLE 1 container total bottom portion bottom presence/absence of weight (g) weight (g) portion/total rupture/deformation 18.0 1.7 0.094 X 18.0 2.9 0.161 ◯ 14.9 1.6 0.107 X 14.9 2.3 0.154 ◯ 20.5 2.3 0.112 X 20.5 3.0 0.146 ◯

As may be seen from Table 1 above, with those bottles having the weight ratio of the bottom portion relative to the bottle total weight ranging 0.12 or more, preferably 0.14 or more, no rupture/deformation occurs under the freeze storage state. Whereas, with the bottles with the weight ratio ranging below the above-defined weight ratio range, rupture/deformation occurs. However, if the weight ratio of the bottom portion relative to the bottle total weight becomes 0.20 or higher, this leads to reduction in the wall thickness of the other portions such as the body portion other than the bottom portion, so rupture/deformation will occur at the time of blow molding or the freeze storage.

The capacity of the bottle 1 is not particularly limited, but can range from 200 ml (milliliter) to 2 l (litter), which are commonly employed commercially. In the instant embodiment, the bottle 1 is formed with a capacity for filling 550 ml of liquid. Specifically, its full filling capacity (the capacity for filling liquid up to the mouth portion 2 fully) is set 577 ml.

Respecting the relationship between the weight and capacity of the bottom 1, preferably, the ratio of weight (g) of the bottom 1 relative to the full filling capacity of the bottom 1 is set to from 0.017 to 0.040 (g/ml). In the instant embodiment, the weight is set to 14.9 g and the ratio of the weight relative to the full filling capacity is set to 0.26 approximately. Namely, with the aseptic filling bottle 1, if the ratio of the total weight relative to the full filling capacity (the capacity when liquid is filled fully to the mouth portion) exceeds 0.040 (g/ml), such bottle 1 can no longer be called a “thin light bottle” and there will result in less need for strength reinforcement of the bottom portion 6 by setting the weight ratio of the bottom portion relative to the total weight to 0.12 or higher. Conversely, if the weight ratio of the bottom portion relative to the total weight falls below 0.017 (g/ml), this will lead to excessive thinness of the other portion than the bottom portion, such as the body portion, so it will become impossible to secure strength sufficient to prevent rupture due to volumetric expansion.

Further, when the bottle 1 is filled with contents liquid to be presented as a filled bottle, it is preferred that the capacity ratio of the space not filled with the contents liquid (i.e. the margin portion not filled with the contents) relative to the full filling capacity should range 0.12 or less. In the instant embrodiment, it is assumed that such space not filled with the contents liquid has a capacity of 27 ml (=full filling capacity 577 ml-550 ml), so the capacity ratio of the space not filled with liquid relative to the full filling capacity is set to 0.05 approximately. Namely, when freeze storage situation is contemplated, the volumetric expansion of the contents liquid is to be taken into consideration, so that the space not filled with the contents liquid will be increased in order to absorb such volumetric expansion. On the other hand, when the contents liquid is filled in the bottle 1 relating to the present embodiment which has the enhanced strength of the bottom portion 6, there is no need to increase the space not filled with the contents liquid in order to suppress occurrence of buckling of the bottom portion 6. So, the bottle 1 relating to the present embodiment is suitable for a case of sufficiently filling the contents liquid relative to the full filling capacity. For this reason, as a filled bottle sufficiently filled with contents liquid with the space not filled with the contents liquid relative to the full filling capacity being set to 0.12 or less, the bottle 1 relating to the present embodiment can be used suitably.

OTHER EMBODIMENTS

Lastly, other embodiments of the aseptic filling bottle relating to the present invention will be explained. Incidentally, arrangements disclosed in the following respective embodiments can be used in combination with any other arrangement(s) disclosed in the other embodiment(s), unless any contradiction occurs.

(1) In the foregoing embodiment, there was described the arrangement wherein the body portion 5 is comprised of the straight body portion 5 a, the constricted portion 5 b and the cushioning portion 5 c. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. For instance, the body portion 5 can be comprised of the straight body portion 5 a only. Further alternatively, the body portion 5 can be comprised of the straight body portion 5 a, plus either the constricted portion 5 b or the cushioning portion 5 c.

(2) In the configuration of the foregoing embodiment, between the adjacent respective concave groove portions 14 and also from the ground contact portion 10 to the circumferential edge 11, concave small groove portions smaller than the concave groove portion 14 can be formed. With this arrangement, the strength of the bottom portion 6 can be even more increased.

(3) Respecting the other arrangements too, it is understood that the embodiments disclosed in the detailed description are only illustrative in all respects thereof and the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that various appropriate modifications thereof can be made without deviating from the essence of the present invention. Therefore, such other embodiments comprising modifications not deviating from the essence of the invention too should be construed to be contained within the scope of the present invention as a matter of course.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is applicable to e.g. a plastic bottle filled with contents liquid by the aseptic filling method.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE MARKS/NUMERALS

-   -   1: aseptic filling bottle     -   2: mouth portion     -   4: shoulder portion     -   5: body portion     -   6: bottom portion     -   7: recess-like rib     -   8: V-shaped recess (recess-like rib)     -   9 a, 9 b: small recess portion (recess-like rib)     -   11: circumferential edge     -   10: ground contact portion     -   12: center portion     -   13: dome portion     -   14: concave groove portion     -   D1: intrusion height of dome portion side circumferential edge         of center portion into the bottom interior     -   D2: height from ground contact portion to boundary between body         portion and bottom portion 

1. An aseptic filling bottle having a mouth portion, a shoulder portion, a body portion and a bottom portion; wherein the bottom portion includes a ground contact portion that comes into contact with a mounting surface, a center portion that progressively intrudes interior of the bottle as it extends radially inwards from the ground contact portion, and a dome portion that is provided at a center of the center portion to intrude the interior of the bottle further than the center portion; and wherein a circumferential edge of the dome portion side of the center portion has an intrusion height into the bottle interior, which height is higher than a half the height from the ground contact portion to a boundary between the body portion and the bottom portion.
 2. The aseptic filling bottle of claim 1, wherein the center portion is formed arcuate.
 3. The aseptic filling bottle of claim 1, wherein a concave groove portion is formed radially from the dome portion.
 4. The aseptic filling bottle of claim 3, wherein the concave groove portion extends from the dome portion to a circumferential edge portion located radially outwards of the ground contact portion.
 5. The aseptic filling bottle of claim 3, wherein the concave groove portion has a depth with respect to the ground contact portion which ranges from 2.5 mm to 5.0 mm.
 6. The aseptic filling bottle of claim 1, wherein at the body portion, at least one recess-like rib which extends circumferentially around its circumference is formed. 